Leslie Jacobson has spent over 40 years producing, writing, directing, and teaching theatre committed to addressing societal challenges and to giving voice to people often marginalized by the dominant culture.

As a scholar, she has been trained to apply the theoretical lens of performance to everyday practices and so, while her methodology is consistent, the subjects of her work vary wildly—from, for example, end of life health care to contemporary dramatic literature to the American Presidency.

After spending several summers as an archaeologist at Jamestown with Preservation Virginia, Erin Kuykendall shifted her studies of American history, architecture, and decorative arts to the world preserved above ground, and worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mount Vernon, the Reeves Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain at Washington & Lee University, and the Philadelphia Athenaeum.

Jae Rhim Lee is an award-winning designer, entrepreneur, and transdisciplinary artist whose living units and wearables reimagine basic life systems and propose alternative and occasionally transgressive relationships between the body and the built and natural environment.

Lisa Lipinski's teaching and research interests include modern and contemporary art and theoretical approaches to the visual arts, Surrealism and the art of René Magritte, the body in modern and contemporary art, and Abraham Lincoln’s influence on America art and culture.

Professor McKnight Sethi is a curator and historian of South Asian art. Her research and teaching interests include textiles and folk art, the intersection of gender and practices of making, networks of circulation and exchange, the anthropology of art, and postcolonial theory.

Dr. Mika Natif (Ph.D., New York University – Institute of Fine Arts, 2006) is a historian of Medieval art focusing on the intercultural exchanges and global connections that Muslim societies forged with the European sphere in the pre-Modern era.

Professor Obler's research and teaching interests include modern and contemporary art and craft from the late nineteenth century to the present, with emphases on twentieth-century avant-gardes, theories of gender and cross-cultural representation, photography, applied arts, and intellectual history.

Before joining the Museum Studies faculty in 2009, Professor Schiavo worked in museums in the DC area, including the City Museum, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, and the National Building Museum, where she curated Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s.

Born in Rochester, New York, Director Sethi has taught at numerous academic institutions including the Memphis College of Art, the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, and California College of the Arts.

Mr. Severtson participated in the first international invitational exhibition, Cybernetic Serendipity, of computer-related art and design at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and in the Art and Technology show at the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum.

Max A. van Balgooy is a national leader in historical interpretation and community engagement, with extensive experience in developing solutions in collaboration with diverse audiences, including volunteers, staff, trustees, residents, scholars, design professionals, business leaders, and elected officials.

A museum director for over two decades, John Wetenhall served for nine years as Executive Director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, leading a $150 million capital and endowment transformation.

Maida Withers was born in Kanab, Utah and was able to define her career with early experiences with legendary artists including Mary Wigman and Folkwangschule (Germany), Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Anna Halprin, Welland Lathrop, Hanya Holm, and, most importantly, John Cage.

Praised for her "taut and impassioned performance" by the New York Times, pianist Ning Yu performs with vigor and dedication for traditional and avant-garde repertoire of the 20th and 21st century on stages across the United States, Europe and Asia.